Les Cinq Légendes

Here's a fresh look at old tradition: a tatted-up Russian St. Nick and an Australian kangaroo-looking Easter Bunny. Rise of the Guardians is based on an original children's book series by William Joyce, who produced the film along with Guillermo Del Toro. The books were inspired by the author's 6-year-old daughter when she asked him if Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny knew each other.

Admittedly I was skeptical going in, but the chemistry of personalities works wonderfully. It creates an original formula that goes against certain expectations. Perhaps one improvement in potential sequels would be to focus more centrally on Santa (or "Nicholas St. North"), but Jack Frost's story is incredibly touching and I found it clever how it parallels the antagonist's motives. The film is slow to start but picks up at a fast pace with non-stop action. By the end, the entire movie theater was in applause.

Rise of the Guardians is a cute, adventurous, and heartwarming family film that focuses on hanging on to the best thing about childhood: belief.

Rise of the Guardians has a lovely concept about these imaginary childhood legends. It tells a fascinating new mythology about them. It sets out to be highly imaginative and thoroughly heartfelt. With these people making this film, there is no surprise that they succeeded to execute those ambitions. Though, the storytelling is a bit messy with endless action set pieces. Despite of those flaws, it's still whimsically magical and heartwarming.

The story centers a childhood guardian, Jack Frost. Among the guardians, he's the least known and believed by the children. It's pretty interesting since most of us only know very little about him, we intend to intrigue about his story. When it goes to the famous legends, it gets bigger and quicker with plenty of humor. The film is also an action movie. The action scenes are amazingly done and eye candy, but they somehow get excessive causing a bit mess to the storyline. It's charming when they go to their relationship with the children, and it's appealing when it explores to their worlds.

The characters are wonderful enough. The voice performances are great. Chris Pine's performance is charming enough to keep Jack Frost pretty endearing. Alec Baldwin brings plenty of joy to his character. Hugh Jackman uses his Australian accent to the Easter Bunny which really fits to the character. The rest are expectedly delightful.

The visuals are undeniably astonishing. Every scene of the film is spectacular and beautiful to look at, making the experience very magical. The 3D enhances the experience more or less. The character designs are inspired. I bet many would love the Sandman's that looks so lovable. And the music score adds sweetness to the sequences.

Rise of the Guardians is a little bit disappointing but also a bit satisfying. It has the heart in a right amount but only the half of the film. The rest is all action and having fun, but it's not a bad thing. They just could have moderated the craziness and get a bit of focus to the storyline. The film is still worth watching. It can be a classic if it has a better storytelling but if you don't care then that won't be a problem. Overall, it's filled with excitement and beautiful animation. Rise of the Guardians can be considered one of the great films of the year.

As a big animation fanatic, I was very keen to see Rise of the Guardians as it did look like an very interesting film. I have to say that it was high expectations lived up to. The best animated movie of the year? Not sure, ParaNorman and Frankenweenie were a little better(can't wait for Wreck-It Ralph), but I do think it is in the better end of the movies of the overall year so far. Was there anything that could have been done better? Well, I did think the movie drags a little bit in the middle. However, there is very little to fault anywhere else. The animation was amazing, the characters were well-modelled and the colours and landscapes were really beautifully realised . Alexandre Desplat's music score has the right amount of sparkling adventure and whimsical fantasy. The writing is thoughtful and well-balanced, not coming across as too childish for adults or too confusingly sophisticated for kids. The visual puns were marvellous, Pitch's night-mares(very spooky) and Bunny's egg-plants were the highlights. The story was a winner too, some may find it predictable(the good vs. evil concept is not necessarily new territory) and dull, I didn't think so at all, some of the middle is not as securely paced as the rest but the chase action and battle were exhilarating, it was fun and it does have a refreshing holiday feel as well as a meaningful message. The characters have distinct personalities and have a definite charm to them, hard to decide who was my favourite. The voice acting was terrific, nobody was bad, Jude Law is suave and sinister and Hugh Jackman is very funny. But Alec Baldwin was a huge surprise, partly because he was totally unrecognisable. All in all, a great animated movie that completely lived up to my expectations. 9/10 Bethany Cox

This movie is criminally underrated. The idea of binging these mythical characters that we all grew up hearing about/believing in together to form an avengers type team and fight against the boogeyman was pure genius. In the wrong hands, this could've very easily been cheesey or dumb, but the execution is flawless. The voice actors all did a great job and helped make these characters badass and interesting. The action was really well done. There are some legit laugh out loud funny moments. The score is amazing and combined with some incredible visuals will give you a sense of childlike wonder and enjoyment. I haven't seen it in a bit, but i love it just as much now as i did when i first saw it. It's not streaming anywhere atm, but if you haven't seen this movies, definitely seek it out. I can't recommend it enough.

Before I discuss what I thought of this film, my oldest daughter insists I talk about the film as seen in theaters. She LOVED the animation and when we watched it on Cinemax HD on our large HDTV, it apparently lost a lot according to her. A lot of the wonderful details were lost and the beauty of the film was lost--at least to some extent. Just thought I'd mention this.

As for the film, the plot is quite strange. Among the many fictional characters (though they are real in this film), the Boogeyman is intent on filling the world with awful dreams and driving out all sense of hope or joy. To counter this, Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and the Sandman all seek out a new guardian--a strange character that will help them fight Mr. Boogey. This character is the hipster-like Jack Frost. Together they do battle to save the children of the world and keep faith in them alive.

Overall, while a gorgeous film, the plot is a bit limp and is more of an excuse to show off the lovely CGI. Not a great movie but worth seeing. I especially liked Alec Baldwin as the Russian version of Santa--what an interesting accent and characterization.